Johns Hopkins BME undergraduates, Anvesh Annadanam, Ravi Gaddipati, Luis Herrera and Eric Xie have been selected as finalists in the 2014 Collegiate Inventors Competition for their AccuSpine invention. The AccuSpine device was one of 99 concepts submitted in the competition. Finalists are chosen based on originality of the idea, the level of development technology and student initiative, as well as the potential value to society. The team will compete against six other undergraduate-developed prototypes at an Expo (open to the public) for the winning honor on November 17, 2014. The Expo will be held at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the Madison Building Auditorium in Alexandria, VA. The AccuSpine probe is designed to improve spinal fusion surgery by providing real-time feedback for accurate surgical screw placement.

Aezon Health, a team comprising 19 Hopkins undergrads and led BME senior Tatiana Rypinski, has been selected as one of 10 teams in the final round of the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition. Aezon is the only undergraduate team in the competition.

The international contest challenges teams to develop consumer-friendly “tricorders” — the fictional device of Star Trek fame — capable of diagnosing a set of 15 conditions and capturing key human health metrics. Each device can weigh no more than five pounds.

Aezon’s system consists of a unit that monitors vital signs, a smartphone app, lab box, and a cloud database that stores patient test results for use later by doctors and patients through an online portal. Learn more.►

The AccuSpine pedicle probe — designed by BME undergrads, Anvesh Annadanam, Clay Andrews, Eric Xie, Adarsha Malla, Bradley Isaacs, Erica Schwarz, Ravi Gaddipati and Ravi Gaddipati and Luis Herrera — has placed second in the 2014 BMEStart competition. The team will receive a cash prize in the amount of $5,000 and will be honored at the October 2014 BMES Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. This is the latest in a string of awards won by the group who developed their device in the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design program. See 2014 Design Day coverage►

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering — part of the National Institutes of Health — have selected a team of Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering undergrads as the first place winner of the 2014 Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) challenge, The BME design team of seven, who presented their project at Johns Hopkins Design Day in May 2014, was awarded a $20,000 prize for their AccuSpine pedicle probe.

The AccuSpine probe will aid in the correct placement of screws used in spinal fusion procedures by providing real-time feedback to the surgeon. The device uses vibration and flashing LED lights to warn when a breach is detected. The AccuSpine probe is expected to increase accuracy of screw placement during spinal fusion surgeries and reduce complications that can result from misplaced screws.

Judging was based on four criteria: the significance of the problem being addressed; the impact on clinical care; the innovation of the design; and the existence of a working prototype. NIH Press Release►

Phani Gaddipati, a junior in the Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering program, has won the top prize in a global app-building contest sponsored by Google. The goal was to develop a customizable flashcard app for end-users.

Gaddipati’s Stacks Flashcards app is designed to aid memorization in the style of old-school paper flashcards. His inspiration was his organic chemistry class, which required a lot of memorization.

His app bested hundreds of apps submitted by hundreds of students from 90 countries. The winning app has already been downloaded more than 23,000 to date. As part of the first-place prize, Gaddipati has won a trip to San Francisco to visit Google headquarters. Read the full story in the JHU Hub. ►